Ankara accuses Berlin of assisting terrorists amid rising rift

Turkey has accused Germany of assisting terrorism over claims that officials in the European country declined to respond to thousands of files sent to Berlin and refused to hand over suspects wanted by Turkish authorities.

“Germany is abetting terrorists,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a conference held by the members of his ruling AKP party on Monday.

“We gave them the dossiers. We gave [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel 4,500 dossiers, but have not received an answer on a single one of them,” he noted. “But when there is a terrorist arrested or detained here, they tell us to give that person back. You won’t send the terrorists you have to us but can ask us for yours. So you have judiciary, but we don’t in Turkey?”

Ankara has previously leveled accusations against Berlin over giving sanctuary to outlawed Kurdish militants and allowing their sympathizers to stage anti-Turkey rallies across Germany.

German-Turkish relations have been getting worse over the past year since the coup attempt of July 2016 in Turkey and Ankara’s crackdown on opposition since then.

Turkey is angry at Germany for granting asylum to officers Turkey says were behind the failed coup.

Berlin, for its part, has toughened its stance toward Ankara following the arrests of 22 German citizens who have been taken into custody in the ensuing crackdown. Nine of those are still in prison, including the recently jailed journalists Deniz Yucel and Mesale Tolu.